An article over on the Final Draft blog with writer-director Liam O’Donnell about how his film Skylines breaks barriers when it comes to writing sci-fi with heavy special effects for the big screen, and also bends a few trilogy story conventions as well. [read more on the Final Draft blog]
Photo courtesy of Vertical Entertainment
My Sci-Fi Circuit article on ScriptMag originally published on August 21, 2017.
There's a new low-budget sci-fi feature from the executive producer of Cloud Atlas called Stasis headed to iTunes and VOD on August 29th in the U.S. – and a lot we can learn from it as sci-fi writers.
I haven't seen the film yet (though it's already been released in over 30 countries), so this isn't a review.
But here's why I'm interested in the story of Stasis: When a screenwriter goes from writing on spec, to writing on assignment, to directing her own first short, to getting hired to write and direct a feature film, I'm interested.
I want to know how that happened, and how she got there.
Let's find out.
I sat down with Nicole Jones-Dion, who both wrote and directed Stasis – in record breaking time, mind you – to see what lessons we up-and-coming sci-fi writers might glean from her experience.
Nicole and I are friends and colleagues from our days studying at ScreenwritingU together, so it was a treat to get to chat with her.
Nicole's first directorial project was Devil's Deal, a short she co-directed with a colleague, and also wrote.
Her second was Debris, a short horror film about an ancient and cursed samurai blade, a passion project she crowdfunded on Indiegogo.
(Full disclosure: I contributed to both projects.)
Nicole was on the festival circuit with Debris, which was up for several awards, when she reconnected with Pearry Teo, a colleague of hers and an executive producer on the movie Cloud Atlas. Nicole and Pearry co-wrote Dracula: The Dark Prince, which he also directed, and Nicole wrote Tekken: Kazuya's Revenge on which he was an executive producer.
When he saw her directorial work with Debris, he asked if she'd be interested in directing a feature. "Sure," she said, "What'd you have in mind?" (This is consummate Nicole.)
He pitched her a YA concept he had about a young woman who sneaks out at night to party with her friends, OD's but recovers, and goes back home only to find someone who looks exactly like her sleeping in her own bed. That was it. From there, it'd be up to Nicole to write the rest of the story. She agreed to take on the project.
Since horror is where Nicole and Pearry tend to hang out, she first conceived the concept as a demonic possession but then their investors asked for a time travel take on the story, which they settled on in January of 2016.
Once they had their concept nailed down, to get the ball rolling, the investors quickly put together a conceptual poster (left, and much different than the official theatrical poster, shown above) to take to the Berlin Film Market in February to build a fan base and secure financing for the project... and Nicole had to put together a script in two weeks to meet that deadline.
As a writer, Nicole said she was struck by how "all you need is a concept and a poster – that’s how films are bought and sold."
Then, once the financing was in place, Nicole started planning the shoot. She was told originally she'd have 24 days. Then 18. Then 12.
The timeline was short both for budget reasons and to be ready to preview a teaser trailer in May at the Cannes Film Festival. Their first three days of shooting were used to compile that teaser.
As a first-time director, she "didn’t realize how ridiculous that was." She says, "Most movies get three to four weeks. People who make films in this budget range keeping asking how I pulled it off."
Her answer? "An amazing cast and crew."
Nicole is proud of what they accomplished with this film, particularly given the incredibly tight time frames she was given to work with.
Nicole and crew shot the film in May of 2016 in the Arizona desert.
They were plagued with a variety of challenges, haunted sets with shadow people, LED costume batteries dying far too rapidly, injuries, proximity to favored locations for drug runners near the Mexico border, and more, but at the end of it all, Nicole has a positive attitude about the crew and the project as a whole, focusing on learning from what went wrong, understanding the process, and making the most of the opportunity.
No matter what happens, have a good attitude and learn from your experiences.
Although a typical convention in YA is to have a love triangle between girl and two guys, Nicole comments that the marketing campaign made some interesting choices, “focusing on the sci-fi elements rather than the YA love story.”
The international poster (to the right) emphasizes "the metaphysical / supernatural aspect where one of the characters is essentially a ghost,” whereas the U.S. poster, marketing, and trailer make it look "a lot more like a big action film," she says.
Despite the differences in the marketing, the film seems to be "finding an audience," as Nicole says, and it's ranking well in IMDb. "It was #317 last week on IMDb," she said at the time of our interview, "...still in top 500. I'm interested in how that's happening, so I can recreate it next time."
And so far, the film has fans. Nicole is being messaged privately by people saying they how much liked it. The actors are "getting flooded with fan mail," especially Anna Harr, who plays two lead roles in the feature film and is in practically every scene.
Nicole suspects a lot of the interest is the connection with Pearry as an executive producer on Cloud Atlas, as well as Anna's resonance with and appeal to teens, which is film's the target demographic.
Learn everything you can from what's working.
After working on this project, Nicole says she's now even more aware than before of the critical business decisions that go into writing a script.
This means being conscious of writing trailer moments, writing roles for A-list actors (no matter who is ultimately cast), giving the protagonist zingy one-liners, and imagining the marketing as she writes.
"As writers," she says, "we tend to ignore and take it for granted, but filmmaking is both an art and a business. All those elements that go into place and make it more salable. It's our job to walk both sides of fence. To make art, tell creative compelling stories, and make money back for our investors."
Filmmaking is both an art and a business.
Since sci-fi tends to be realm for big budget, Nicole sees a "pent up demand for films like Ex Machina and Moon." She sees the low budget space as being a "wide open," underserved market for sci-fi.
She also notes that while comparisons between Stasis and The Terminator are inevitable because there's a time traveling character in the story much like The Terminator, she sees it as a loving homage to sci-fi classic that brings in a supernatural element too. It's more like "Terminator meets Ghost" for teens.
Her advice for sci-fi writers, is to "know your genre, be aware of things that have been done before, and try to bring something original to it. Make it your own somehow. Make the most of it."
For Nicole, horror is her bread and butter. She's just optioned The Elevator Game, and is working on other horror scripts, and possibly other low-budget sci-fi scripts as well.
You can find Nicole on Twitter, on Facebook, and on Instagram, and on her website at www.praxiscope.com.
Catch Stasis on VOD and iTunes on August 29th. Follow Stasis online here.
[Original article at ScriptMag]
Featured image courtesy of XLrator Media
I can't believe it, but I've worked on two different screenwriting assignments this year, all while taking care of my little toddler, who just turned two in May. It hasn't been exactly easy, but it's been incredibly inspiring. There's nothing quite like working on a screenplay with a deadline to shift one's motivation into high gear. ;)
I recently shared that I'd overhauled my character profile template in the course of working on this latest assignment. Now I want to share some of the other things I learned through the process of working on this gig. This was a rewrite project, so it was almost like being hired as a script doctor, but since I'm also sharing writing credit for the project it's a little different than being a true script doctor, which is often uncredited work. The project is called The Seventh, and it turned out to be incredibly fun to rewrite someone else's work (not at all like rewriting my own!).
Here are six unexpected takeaways I gained from working on this project:
Interestingly, when I was first offered this writing gig, I turned it down, based on my level of busyness as a mom, as a writer of my own projects, and as an entrepreneur. But in the end, it was a delightful experience all around and one I'm truly grateful to have been asked to be involved in. I can't wait to see what happens with The Seventh as it continues to evolve!
My Sci-Fi Circuit article on ScriptMag originally published May 31, 2016.
As an experienced screenwriter, screenwriting instructor, and the writer and curator of The Black List's official screenwriting blog, Scott has a finger on the pulse of what's happening in the world of screenwriting. He was kind enough to do this interview with me on the subject.
My advice: Think high-concept, low-budget. Can you write a sci-fi script with distant immersive worlds, scads of spaceships, complex battle sequences and hordes of aliens? Sure. But it will have to be incredibly special for two reasons:
So the line of least resistance in terms of writing a spec script that can sell is to think of something along the lines of Moon, the 2009 movie from writer-director Duncan Jones, a strong high-concept in a contained environment, and therefore lower budget.
I’d say two things. First, it all depends on the quality of the story concept and the ability to execute it in a simple, but elegant way.
Second, after a decade or more of found footage projects which in effect embrace B-movie production values, audiences are probably well prepared for certain types of sci-fi movies with less special effects and a, shall we say, cruder approach to the filmmaking process.
I read a lot of scripts and one recurring issue I find, regardless of genre, is a lack of emotional resonance. There can be all this huge stuff going on in the plot, literally in a sci-fi story at the scale of blowing up an entire planet, but if there aren’t points of connection for a script reader to the story’s characters, where we actually feel something authentic for them, then the effect can be so much noise.
That’s why I have this writing mantra: Substantial Saga / Small Story. That is whatever the big story is, what I call the Plotline, there have to be some intimate subplots and dynamics going on which engender a human connection between the reader and the characters.
Fortunately Hollywood has some top-drawer screenwriters who write sci-fi nowadays who really get that, writers like Joss Whedon (Firefly, Serenity, The Avengers), Damon Lindelof (Prometheus), Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci (Star Trek 2009, Star Trek Into Darkness, Fringe), Jon Spaihts (Prometheus), and Neill Blomkamp (District 9).
Advice: Get hold of their scripts, read them, analyze them, read them again, repeat as needed.
My own two cents—and this relates to all genres—is to think of the story universe as its own character. It should have a feel, an atmosphere, a unique sense of place, perhaps even an attitude toward the characters, for example, "hospitable" or "dangerous". I believe in character-based screenwriting and I think that can extend to how we approach crafting a story universe.
For more on this subject I highly recommend this terrific interview with Jon Spaihts on io9 in which he specifically addresses the issue of world-building.
In my view, every good movie posits an existential question of key characters, most notably the Protagonist, and that question is this: Who am I?Throughout the narrative, there is a battle, metaphorical and/or literal, over the dispensation of that question that is only answered in the final act.
One considerable benefit of science fiction is to transplant characters into radically different environments and what that can do is really drive home that existential question. Thrust into extreme circumstances as strangers in a strange land, a Protagonist in a science fiction story can confront the question of self-identity not only in a philosophical way, but in a visceral sense of physical survival.
Putting a central character under that much pressure in a world with significantly different cultural values, behaviors and beliefs is a terrific way to confront what is arguably the greatest single question of our existence.
So I would say make your science fiction story about something, delve into the question of who am I. That’s the foundation of a small story set against a substantial saga that is rife with opportunities to create a genuine connection with a script reader.
Since selling his spec script K-9 in 1987, Scott has written nearly 30 projects for every major Hollywood studio and broadcast network. His film writing credits include K-9 starring Jim Belushi, Alaska starring Vincent Kartheisher, and Trojan War starring Jennifer Love Hewitt. In 2002, he began teaching screenwriting in his spare time. He won the UCLA Extension Writers’ Program Outstanding Instructor Award in 2005 and currently teaches at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill. From 2002-2010, Scott was an executive producer at Trailblazer Studios, a television production company. He is co-founder of Screenwriting Master Class, a unique online resource for writers. Scott is a member of the Writers’ Guild of America, west, and a graduate of the University of Virginia and Yale University Divinity School.
You can follow Scott on Twitter @GoIntoTheStory.
Image by prettysleepy1 from Pixabay
I wrote recently getting a handle on online distractions that keep you from writing, and prior to that, about cutting back on the online distractions that were cluttering my head.
I've been highly interested in this topic because I could feel my life-energy being sapped by these distractions and it's been really bothering me, despite the many changes I've already made. I do a good job of protecting my actual writing time from email and other online stuff, but the rest of my life? Not so much.
And it was mostly because of my phone. My computer use feels manageable. My TV consumption is minimal (though I have been watching lots of Prison Break and Breakout Kings as I'm prepping a sci-fi prison movie right now!). Having said that, I like being able to use my phone to read ebooks in the dark late at night without waking the baby (who sleeps in the same room) and being able to write on it when I want to.
But I don't like feeling like I can't be without it. Ever. YUCK.
(And honestly, the picture I've chosen to accompany this post keeps freaking me out -- it seems entirely emblematic of how so many of us are viewing our world through the filter of a device... constantly.)
It was email that was really my last "hook" — I rationalized that as a business owner, I need to stay on top of things and make sure nothing was falling through the cracks. But that notion kept me constantly checking to see if I had any new messages.
And not only did I feel guilty for oh so frequently "checking" my phone when I was around my kids, I didn't like the way my brain felt always cluttered by all the checking, even after I'd taken Facebook off my phone, turned off almost all the notifications in the lock screen and more. It was like being tied into other people's energy and needs was keeping me on edge, in a hyper vigilant state of awareness and constant readiness. Again, YUCK.
So I decided to participate in a "Look Up" two week online use "detox" program and see what shifts I could make.
We worked through a four-step process of first defining what we want, noticing what impulses were driving the behavior to check in online, accepting that those feelings and impulses (often discomfort) would not necessarily change but that we could learn new ways to deal with them, and finally choosing what we wanted instead. Then, every day, we answered simple journal prompts every morning to set our intentions for the day about our online use and how we wanted our days to go, and every evening, about how it went and what we learned.
Initially I found myself sort of skirting the edges of changing my phone use, testing the water, seeing how it felt just to consider cutting back. (Which just shows how powerful an addiction it can be!)
Even before the program started, I installed the app called "Moment" so I could see how much time I was actually spending on my phone, and how many times I was picking it up. So in some ways it was good that I wasn't changing anything initially, but just observing. And it was kind of scary. There was one day, prior to the program, where I picked up my phone FORTY-NINE times. 49!! It's embarrassing even to put that in print.
On about Day 3 of the 14-day program I decided to take Gmail off my phone entirely. For good measure, I took off Chrome too, so my second-biggest, "let me just look that up real quick" excuse was gone too. I still have Safari there but since it wasn't my go-to program it just doesn't have the same attraction. While I was at it, I turned off every other kind of lock screen, pop up, and banner notification I could find on my phone (except iMessage and Reminders, which I do use) and on my computer.
It was so worth it.
I felt sort of jittery for about 24 to 48 hours, still on that automatic "must-check-now" auto-alert. It was mildly frightening to feel so much like Pavlov's Dog. Again, YUCK.
After that, everything got a lot more calm.
I found myself feeling much more present in my life and to my family.
My brain felt quieter, calmer, more alert.
I had more energy.
I started reading REAL BOOKS and putting my hands on REAL THINGS like baking food, drawing, collaging. I noticed that when I felt the urge to "check" I could make tea, or snuggle with my boys, or GO OUTSIDE and look up at the beautiful amazing sky that helps make life on this planet possible.
I also found that I could still use my devices for certain things: Kindle, Netflix, the timer, the calculator, iMessages, writing, and other apps I love and find incredibly useful without it taking over my time and energy. My phone became a tool again, instead of a constant companion or savior or whatever it was actually doing for me. It's been interesting to walk the line of finding what online use works for me and what doesn't, at least for right now.
I found myself being crystal clear about times when I absolutely did NOT want to be consuming any online stuff at all and have had a few spans of totally unplugged time (something I used to do weekly) and LOVED it.
It's started to feel kind of gross to be looking at my phone.
So I just don't do it much anymore. It mostly stays in my office, on the charger, except when I need it when I'm out and want it for emergency phone calls, or if I need it for another purpose, like the calculator or timer. Again, it's gone back to being a tool, and I like that.
I also found that the days have gotten So Much Longer! All those "little" checks and moments of time that were getting sucked into online use are suddenly mine again. My mind is clearer. My intentions are clearer each day. I feel more focused.
And as far as my writing goes, I have not noticed a huge change in my writing time, but I'm not surprised by that, since I've already been writing regularly and protecting my writing time well.
What I have noticed is that I feel readier to write when I sit down to do it. Now what swirls around in my brain when I'm out in the world is what I'm going to be writing about next, whether it's a blog post, my current script, or the next big project that's coming down the pipeline. It might sound like a small shift, but it's huge. It feels like I've reclaimed my own territory again. And it's such a relief.